do you promise?
by melmel12129
Summary: A series of oneshots. Moods, styles, and universes range. —nejixtenten
1. addiction

**Hi, it's me again. Good luck. I don't know why you'll need it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not, and will never own Naruto.**

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><p><em>'No, obsessed wouldn't be the right word. Nor would addicted-god, that makes me sound like some drug addict. No, I think enamored is the best way to put it. But she really is irresistible.'<em>

To straight out say it, Neji liked Tenten. _Like_-like. Not just like. Maybe even love. Or maybe, it was just an obsession. Of course, he would _never_ admit that.

That would be too much of a blow to his pride. After all, who ever heard of the Neji Hyuuga _liking_ someone? That was unheard of. Possibly, the only people who knew were Hinata (who'd sworn not to tell until Neji allowed her to), and Lee (who'd began babbling something about how youthful Neji and Tenten were, especially since Tenten was a "youth-filled blossom" until Neji began Jyuukening Lee until he'd sworn he'd never tell either.).

Neji watched Tenten all day long, scrutinizing every dip and crook of her face, every strand of hair.

She was the perfect image, the epitome of beauty. Or so Neji thought. Sparkling brown eyes, a childish and pouty mouth (Neji sincerely hoped that no one noticed his lingering looks on them), a little button nose (that he restrained from poking sometimes), for god's sake, even the buns on her head had some kind of _allure_ to it (He often wondered what they would look like _down_.).

Then, she did something so Tenten-like, so...so annoying that the image disappeared. Neji shook his head in irritation.

"Tenten, did you really have to do that?" Neji irascible attitude sparked at the disappearance of the image. He stormed off, leaving Tenten to wonder what she had done.

"Sheesh, what's wrong with Neji today? Yesterday because I sneezed, the day before yesterday because I scratched my head…and today? Even weirder. Aha! I'll go confront him," Tenten snapped her fingers.

Tenten caught up to Neji and said, "What's your problem?"

Neji grumbled, "Hn."

"Don't go monosyllabic on me. You know I understand what you mean anyways. Your problem is certainly _not _nothing," Tenten snapped. Tenten planted her hands on her hips assertively and said, "You're just jealous because I don't have a reputation and can rub my nose without losing my pride!" She sniffed cutely.

"Tenten…" Neji warned. His eyebrows twitched. He seriously wanted to smack the closest thing right now. However, that happened to be Tenten, and something told him it wasn't a good idea. Besides, that sniff kinda put him over the edge. He turned around and took deep breaths. When he turned around, Tenten was still there, waiting.

'Dang...' Neji thought. 'I can't really get away with this, can I?' Neji replied, "That is not the case. When you rub your nose, you imply that you have a cold, which will disrupt practice."

"Awwwww!" Tenten cried and threw her arms around his neck. "Neji! You worry about me, don't you?"

On second thought, maybe this wasn't such a bad day.

Neji decided to make it even better, "Tenten. Get off me. Now." It wasn't like he didn't like the feeling. It's just that he might suddenly get a nosebleed, and it wouldn't be good for his reputation.

"You're so mean, Neji! I'm not talking to you anymore!" Tenten cried and stomped away. Neji blinked after her.

_'Women...' _he thought, not understanding Tenten's train of thought. He sighed. _'When will this whole thing end?'_

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><p>No one knew exactly why, the next day, Neji and Tenten weren't speaking to one another. It had to be something, everyone speculated, but, again, no one knew what.<p>

Lee, finally bored of his teammates' "un-youthfulness" (as he put it) devised a plan with his beloved sensei.

It failed. Here is how it went:

"Neji! My eternal rival! And Tenten! The blossom of youth! I command you in the name of youth! Speak to each other!"

...

_*Silence*_

"What are you talking about, Lee? We're perfectly fine. See?" Tenten faked a smile and put a reluctant arm around Neji's shoulders.

Neji nodded sullenly - anything to get Lee off his back. Lee immediately pranced off to tell Gai-sensei of his success.

The next day, they weren't speaking to each other again. The rest of Konoha wondered what was with Lee and Gai to make them run laps around Konoha on their hands for 5 hours straight before falling into a set of pushups without rest for 3 hours, finally ending the days with a 3 hour spar. When asked, the only coherent words were, "youthful", "plan", "youth", and "failed".

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><p>Sasuke, ever the quiet and grouchy one, didn't really even care about this predicament. It didn't have anything to do with him, Itachi, or power, so why should he do anything about it?<p>

His thoughts were quickly rectified by the one and only Uzumaki Naruto.

"Teme, teme!"

"...dobe..."

"You should get Neji and Tenten to talk again!"

"Hn." Naruto construed that as a, 'Why should I?' comment and countered.

"Tenten won't get ramen with me anymore, because she's sulking all the time! And no one else will except Chouji, who eats almost as much and me and makes me pay more money than I have! C'mon bastard!"

"No, dead-last."

"If Neji stops sulking you can spar with him and get more power," Naruto whispered in Sasuke's ear, grinning, hoping Sasuke would take the bait. And he did.

"...fine, dumbass."

So, Sasuke used a conventional method of persuasion. Violence.

Here is how it went:

"Hyuuga."

"Uchiha. What do you want?"

"Speak to Tenten again then fight me."

"No."

Sasuke put his hands in his pockets, and strode towards Neji, who was on guard, glaring suspiciously at Sasuke. Sasuke gave a rare smile, then kicked Neji into a tree.

"Do it."

"Bluurgh."

Needless to say, Neji didn't comply to Sasuke's wishes, not after Sasuke had kicked him into a tree. Plan failed. Whereas the talk of Konoha was Gai and Lee before, now it was about why Sasuke kept wearing that dark malevolent glare and also why Naruto kept giggling behind his hand whenever Sasuke wasn't looking. When asked, all Naruto said between his giggles were, "Teme...can't even...convince...Neji...to talk...so useless!"

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><p>Now, this had been going on for a few days already, and when I say the people of Konoha wanted Neji and Tenten to be on speaking terms again, I meant it.<p>

They were restless, trying to get the two ninja of the Rookie 12 to be friendly again.

And now for the grand finale...the final plan...the one that was sure to work (and it did, in the end)...was Sakura's and Ino's.

Surprisingly, they didn't plan at all.

Surprisingly, it was very simple.

And surprisingly, it not only got Neji and Tenten speaking terms, but even further. _Yeah. _They were _dating_.

Now, what could this miraculous plan be?

Here is how it went:

"Piggy, you grab Tenten, I'll grab Neji, ok?"

"Whatever, Forehead."

"1...2...3."

Ino, who had grabbed Tenten by the collar, and Sakura, who had grabbed Neji's arms, shoved them together on the count of three.

Their lips met, and Ino and Sakura left the scene smirking victoriously.

Sakura and Ino, to celebrate their success, went on a shopping spree with the rest of their teams, and forced them to carry their bags. All in all, it was a wonderful day.

The gossip in all of Konoha the next day was definitely how Neji and Tenten spent the rest of the day yesterday chasing pink haired and blonde haired girls around the mall.

No one noticed how Tenten stopped rubbing her nose. **(A/N If you are confused look back to the previous chapter.)**

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><p><strong>Yay! I liked the edited version way better than the original, ne? Wasn't it some stupid crap about how Team 7 hid behind a bush and watched the way overused excuse of blowing dust out of people's eyes?<strong>

**Well, at any rate, I liked it, so I hope you guys do too.**

**Thanks**

**melmel12129**


	2. fluffy

**Kitty**

Hi everyone who reads this, I hope you enjoy the story and the fact that I decided to edit it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I do not want to either.

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><p>A preview of the ending:<p>

"Tenten, what is that...thing?" he asked rather testily.

Tenten frowned. "Don't call Fluffy a thing. 'The Thing' happens to be a she. And she's your present."

Neji sighed deeply. Then he death-glared the cat. The cat licked her paw and stared at him smugly. He stomped over, ready to murder the cat.

Tenten stopped him, holding out an arm. "No! Fluffy!"

"So you're siding with it?" Neji growled.

"She's not an it. And you shouldn't kill poor, innocent animals," Tenten pouted.

Innocent? _Innocent? _What was Tenten thinking?

He glared and glared at the kitty.

Damn kitty.

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><p>Neji was lounging on his couch. Alone. Never let it be said that the respectable Hyuuga Neji was a couch potato. That was unacceptable.<p>

But...but he was just so bored. What was there to do? The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the rabid fangirls were waiting outside to ambush him in case he opened the door just a tiny smidget.

It was Valentine's day, obviously.

Seriously, the fangirls should go do something better with their time now that he had a girlfriend. Like go bug Sasuke. Yes, bugging Sasuke would be worthwhile to do, at least for the fangirls.

Neji heard a sound of wood cracking. Had his savior finally come? Did the god of unboredomness finally come to rescue him from his plight?

But alas, it was not what Neji had hoped.

Unfortunately, the door sprouted a rather huge crack. Neji groaned as he heard the cheering from outside grow larger.

Within two seconds, the door collapsed on itself, and the fangirls streamed in, all raging to give Neji chocolate. Uh-oh.

Neji performed his Kaiten. His spinning blue shield deflected the deformed homemade chocolates that were being thrown at him.

"TENTEN!" he yelled angrily. No one responded, but the fangirls who hissed angrily at the forbidden name and threw their chocolates with greater haste in case the devil came herself.

Unfortunately, once again, the devil was out training somewhere _without him_, because apparently he was _too demanding _and _too tiring_ when training.

They had trained almost every day for the _past eight years _and now suddenly, on today of all days, she disappeared.

Maybe it was just to avoid his fangirls. Yes, that was it. She just didn't want to deal. His lip curled. His Kaiten was flickering, as his chakra was getting depleted.

Finally, he just sat down on his couch and curled under his blanket to avoid seeing the bright painted faces of the fangirls and the cleavage they shoved at him.

They ripped his blanket off.

He winced as a box hit him in the head and the fangirl in question screamed in victory as the chocolate had touched him. Immediately, a mob of other fangirls jumped on her and began terrorizing her.

Neji knew he shouldn't have bought such a big apartment. But he had money, and he only wanted the best. Maybe if the apartment was smaller, the fangirls wouldn't have the room to fit in here.

The fangirls were nearly upon him, their bright fake smiles getting too close to his face for comfort.

He cringed as the first set of grabbing, ripping hands touched him. He heard one of them cheer as they ripped off a few strands of his hair. He grabbed his stinging head, wincing.

The other fangirls attacked the hair-fangirl rabidly, tearing her clothes and hair off, wiping her makeup off, and grabbing for the hair.

The rest glomped him and spread their lipstick marks victoriously and happily. Their chocolates lay in heaps around him.

A few hours that felt like years later, the fangirls had finished molesting him.

His clothing had been torn off save his undergarments and he just knew that over half of his hair was gone from his horribly hurting scalp.

So maybe his hair wasn't that drastic, but it was very, very messy, and Neji hated it when anyone mussed up his shiny, sleek hair.

He had lipstick marks and other rubbed off makeup all over him, from weird places like next to his armpit to on the inside of his thigh. He shuddered. That hadn't felt right.

Neji was also glad that he had just showered. It would be gross to have fangirls rampaging while he was all sweaty.

However, he sure was all sweaty now...that much body heat compressed in one living room couldn't have been good for him.

Some fangirls were bold enough to leave lasting hickeys on random places on his body.

And oh! His living room. The coffee table was broken into splinters, thanks to the fangirls' charge. Chocolates lay damaged from where they had bounced off of him or his Kaiten. There was a lot of melted chocolate and broken chocolate and broken boxes on the floor from the rampage.

All in all, today was NOT a good day. Just as the last of the fangirls had left, blowing him a kiss and snapping a picture of his undressed form, he recognized Tenten's chakra signature heading toward the apartment.

Most of the fangirls should've dispersed by now.

Neji got up to shower. Tenten walked in and fake gasped at the damage. "Oh my, Neji. What happened?"

"You know what happened," Neji growled unhappily. He noted the cardboard box she was carrying. It had holes on the top. What was it? "You were out _shopping _while I was braving this all alone?" Neji gestured at himself and glared at Tenten.

Tenten smiled prettily. "Oh no, Neji. I never would. I was merely buying you a Valentine's Day present."

Neji refrained from lunging at her in his disgusting state. He knew, knew that Tenten just wanted to escape the slaughter. He stomped into the shower.

After he came out, refreshed, and slightly less angry, he saw Tenten playing with a cat. A cat? So she spent the entire afternoon picking out a CAT? No, this could not be. Well, at least Tenten had cleaned up the living room to as good as new, although her shadow clones probably did all the work.

"Tenten, what is that...thing?" he asked rather testily.

Tenten frowned. "Don't call Fluffy a thing. 'The Thing' happens to be a she. And she's your present."

Neji sighed deeply. Then he death-glared the cat. The cat licked her paw and stared at him smugly. He stomped over, ready to murder the cat.

Tenten stopped him, holding out an arm. "No! Fluffy!"

"So you're siding with it?" Neji growled.

"She's not an it. And you shouldn't kill poor, innocent animals," Tenten pouted.

Innocent? _Innocent? _What was Tenten thinking?

He glared and glared at the kitty.

Damn kitty.

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><p>So...worse? Better? Review and critique. Thanks.<p>

melmel12129


	3. together

Narrator POV

It was, literally, a dark and stormy night. The clouds rolled overhead, thunder boomed, and lightning crackled, getting louder with each passing second. The dark night sky lit with an explosion of sound and lightning. Soon enough, it sounded like cymbals crashing just next to the ear.

With a blink~ the street lights dimmed. One by one, the lights around the city flickered out. Somewhere in the distance, a power line fell, booming to the ground with a great thud.

This - this was the perfect scene for something dark, something murderous. It was a premonition of a crime, of something bad to come.

Dark shadows crept along trees, half-there, half-not. In the center of this terrifying scene, a girl lay on the ground, given up on life, dull, and devoid of anything happy.

Her hair was strewn around her, a chestnut halo barely visible in the dim light that the occasional lightning-thunder strike gave. Some of the strands were still up in their original buns - symbols of who she once was. Now, that was gone too. Her disorderly hair was like her life - ruined, broken, yet despairingly beautiful.

Her eyes were closed before. Now they slowly opened, dark brown lashes fluttering again pale, muddy, and hollow cheeks. She had cinnamon eyes. If apples covered in sweet cinnamon were warm and delicious, then these eyes were like the cinnamon color of dried blood, hard and crumbled.

"Where...where?" she mumbled to herself, sitting up, wincing at the pain in her spine. "Where am I?"

Then she remembered. Her eyes darkened more. She had gone on a mission. A S-class mission. It was completed.

But, it was her own weakness that had caused her this. She had to get rid of a wealthy ring of men that bought women as slaves, or more commonly prostitutes, and sold them for more money.

The group had hired several capable ninja. When they were defeated, she was already completely out of chakra, and out of energy. Everyone but the head of the group had been killed. She hadn't expected the leader to be much of a threat, as people who hired ninja tended not to be strong ninja.

She thought she had finished the mission, but it turned out the leader of the ring was also a shinobi, albeit not such a good one. At this point, her energy ran so low she couldn't defend herself at all.

The man attacked her...rendered her helpless...then raped her. Tears had slid down her cheeks, but her arms and legs were useless. Only at the last moment had she remembered her last tactic - using the remainder of her strength and chakra (the dregs mustered up over the last few minutes) she killed the man with medical skills she'd learned from a pink-haired medic-ninja friend.

When she woke up in the morning, her chakra was restored, and healed herself with the basic medic knowledge every shinobi had. However, there was something she would never have back: her maidenhood. She had ran back to Konoha, passed the gate guards without a word, and went to this park. Sometime through, it had begun raining, and she supposed that her mission report could wait.

The world seemed to crash down on her. She had been saving that important thing for the one she loved, if he ever accepted her feelings. She hadn't been able to tell him...not yet. She had sat beneath this tree, soaked to the bone, and slowly fell asleep.

And now - and now! She was never going to let anyone take something precious like that from her anymore...never. She was going to get stronger, if not more powerful than the most powerful. She would be so strong that no mortal would dare challenge her.

Her sharp senses heard footsteps approaching. She stood up and neatly hid into the shadows behind the tree. She masked her chakra and waited.

"Tenten? Tenten? Are-are you there?" the voice called. The girl in the shadows recognized the voice. _Neji_. Hyuuga Neji, the one she had wished to share her first time with...

Neji came into the small clearing in the park. "Tenten, where are you? Come out now!"

"Here, Neji, here. Were you looking for me?" the girl stepped out of the shadows. Her face bore a half-crazed look, a sweet look of pure innocence, but was somewhat ruined by the mussed hair and dark tainted-ness rolling over her features.

Neji ran to her. "Thank...thank god you're safe, Tenten... Kotetsu and Izumo said they saw you come in, but you never reported to Tsunade."

Tenten smiled a smile full of sugary sweetness. "Oh, Neji, were you worried?"

"Hn," Neji only replied, turning his head away. Tenten walked toward him, swaying her hips. She came closer...and closer...and closer. She poked his chest.

"Now, now...you wouldn't want to make me mad now, would you?" Tenten giggled madly.

Neji backed away. "What's - what's happened to you, Tenten? What's happened on the mission?"

"So observant," Tenten murmured. "What's the use, Neji? All we ever do is run, run from life. You need to face it-stop being a coward. Stop being _weak_. I can't be weak. I can't," the girl laugh-barked roughly.

Neji looked her in the eyes. The once bright and hopeful beautiful brown eyes were now ragged, dark, and completely different.

They spoke of hardship, betrayal, and a hard wall that would be no doubt hard to break down. But he would do it. He swore he would. "Tenten. Listen to me. Laugh for me. A real laugh. I don't know what occurred, but I'll help you get through it - I promise."

Tenten threw her head back, disorderly hair, out of her used to be normal buns, flying everywhere, and laughed. And laughed. And laughed.

Each time it only got crazier, until Tenten collapsed on the floor tears running down, shaky laughs forcing its way out of her mouth.

She wasn't as strong as she looked. Inside, she was a little girl, trying to look big.

For a moment, Neji thought she looked mad, looked insane. But he quickly pushed it away. No. Tenten wasn't mad-she was beautiful.

"I can't, Neji. I just can't. I can't live anymore like this. I can't laugh. I can't cry. I can't be weak. Look at Sakura. Look at Hinata. God, look at Ino! Even she's better than me now," Tenten broke down.

"I can't be weak!" she yelled, the sounds bouncing off the room's walls. "I can't…I can't…" Tenten slowly fell asleep while murmuring her mantra, and while Neji was stroking her hair.

And he had done it. He had. He had broken through the walls.


	4. there's a world out there

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**Enjoy**

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><p>There's a world out there beyond Konoha. None of them have seen it. They are seven and they haven't yet been outside the gates of their village.<p>

"I bet there's a place full of flowers and cake!" Ino declared. She flicked her ponytail and it hit Sakura in the face. "What 'bout you, Forehead Girl?"

Sakura scowled, "I'm not Forehead Girl, piggy. But I think you're wrong. My mama told me that it's dangerous outside the gates. Like there're lots of scary people and I shouldn't go out 'til I'm old enough."

"Wimp," Ino muttered and Sakura pinched Ino. As a new person spoke up, they turned their undivided attention to him.

"Tch...don't you know? Aniki says that there are many hidden villages such as ours beyond Konoha. They're all really strong, but my aniki's the strongest!" a seven-year old Uchiha Sasuke piped up, eyes wide with innocence (ruined innocence in another year). "My aniki is really strong. 'Tachi's an an-boo."

Ever looking for a fight with an Uchiha, Hyuuga Neji countered Sasuke's statement, "And you say you know everything. It's A-N-B-U, stupid."

"Hey, I'm not stupid!" Sasuke cried, kicking Neji's leg. Sakura and Ino immediately agreed, swooning behind him.

Neji only huffed and looked away, trying to look mature, as if he wasn't even interested in a fight with Sasuke. "Hmph."

"Leave Neji-kun alone!" a kunai whizzed past Sasuke's hair. Neji's only friend stepped in front of him, protecting him. He was in the branch part of the clan, so he didn't really have a chance to make many friends. He had met this girl in the weapon's shop while picking up some kunai for Hinata.

His pride shattered (he had to be saved by a _girl_), Neji stood up, "Tenten! Why'd you do that?"

"He was hurting you!" Tenten answered. "Why didn't you stop him?"

"He's not worth it," he lamely tried to defend his point. "And he thinks he knows so much but he doesn't."

Tenten chuckled, "What doesn't he know?"

"Like he thinks his brother is the strongest! I bet there're so much more amazing shinobi out there outside of Konoha too. Uchiha can't even say ANBU correctly. So this is where the Uchiha have fallen to?" Neji replied, fire dancing in his eyes.

"Aw, c'mon Neji. Just coz you're a Hyuuga and he's an Uchiha, you can say that? How 'bout this. When we grow up we'll explore the world and see who's right, 'kay?" Tenten nudged Neji with her foot.

"Okay..." Neji mumbled. He really wanted to go, but he didn't want to seem too excited just in case someone accused him of liking Tenten. Everyone knew that rumors amongst seven year olds spread fast. "Promise?" he looked up hopefully at Tenten.

"Yeah, pinkie promise," she stuck her pinky out.

He hooked his pinkie with hers, and let out a rare Hyuuga smile.

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><p><strong>melmel12129<strong>


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